Social media companies are under pressure to curb fake news and misleading political ads meant to sway voters in an election year, after a slew of scandals emerged in the aftermath of the US presidential election in 2016.

Teleperformance DIBS, a business process outsourcing company, said it is seeing a surge in demand for content- moderation services as India faces general elections.

Social media companies are under pressure to curb fake news and misleading political ads meant to sway voters in an election year, after a slew of scandals emerged in the aftermath of the US presidential election in 2016.

Earlier this month, Facebook announced that it had hired a lead for election integrity in India. "Everyone understands India is the biggest democracy in the world and the stakes are high. We are seeing a surge in demand for content- moderation services," Bhupender Singh, CEO at Teleperformance Digital Integrated Business Services, said.

Teleperformance has over 1,000 employees working on content moderation in India. It already moderates about 1,25,000 pieces of content a week and it expects to scale up that operation.

The company is seeing demand not just from foreign sites but also Indian applications and websites. "It is not just international companies. We are also working with domestic Indian firms that need content moderation," Singh said.

The Indian government has proposed amendments to Section 79 of the IT Act that will impose steep penalties on apps and websites that fail to crack down on 'unlawful' content.

Content moderation is increasingly tough on the moderators. ET has reported that Genpact, which has won a content moderation contract from Facebook, required potential hires to be "comfortable for any content sexual assault, terrorism, child abuse, may be live suicidal videos and bloodshed". BPO companies have said they have placed wellness programs to protect their moderators, many of whom are sometimes fresh out of college.

ET reported in December that Facebook had also engaged with Indian IT services firms such as Wipro, HCL Technologies and Tech Mahindra for content moderation. Google's Youtube had also engaged with Wipro for such such activities, ET reported on February 13.